Telegram, founded by Russian Pavel Durov, has gained popularity thanks to its privacy-friendly features, but has also in recent years become a hotbed for conspiracy theorists, cybercriminal groups and extremists promoting hate speech. The platform claims to have over 800 million monthly active users worldwide.
While the world’s largest tech companies are overseen by the European Commission and are subject to the strictest DSA rules, smaller platforms are overseen by the national regulators of the country where they have their legal representation.
Telegram chose a Brussels-based company called European Digital Services Representative (EDSR) to represent it.
It will be supervised by the Belgian telecommunications authority, BIPT, as coordinator of digital services. The authority “will only be fully competent in a few weeks”, when the country publishes its law implementing the regime, said Jimmy Smedts, BIPT spokesperson.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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